Back on the Rock
And after three short years, I have finshed my tenure in Japan and returned home with very mixed feelings.
On one hand, I'm happy to see my family and friends again. It's so nice being able to have the foods I missed and see familiar places.
On the other hand, I'm badly missing my apartment and Emily in particular, as well as the food, the weather, my town, my bicycle, my students, my co-workers. My independance. Here, I can't just pick up and go wherever I like; it's cold to the point where I need a jacket to go outside. My friends are great, but I'm a little overwhelmed.
It's nice to be here...though I can't help but feel that it's only a matter of time before I go back to Japan for a visit. I'm already planning it. GCCX game centers, a visit to Meoto-Iwa, perhaps Wakayama in early summer...and I want to get a Japan Rail Pass and really see the parts of the country that were too far away to visit before. I want to see Okinawa and Hokkaido, visit the Hidden Springs in Kyushu again and eat dango-jiru, walk through the lights of Shibuya late at night. I give it three years, tops.
Since my last entry, I've literally had no time for anything. Marisa showed up just days after Gen-chan left, and while she was here, Mana came down from Gunma for a weekend. I had a ton of fun with them both. Just after Marisa went back to the States, Mel crashed at my place for two weeks while she arranged things for her own stay in Japan. In the meantime, Mana came again, as did Mitsu for much of the last week I was there. Mitsu and Emily were absolutely instrumental in getting me out of the country on time.
I felt vaguely uncomfortable trying to pack the apartment with Mel there so I put it off until she left...6 days before I was to hand over my keys. I was in a panic from there. Twice I hauled home boxes over my back as a biked home, using jumper cables. Once, as I dragged 6 kilograms of clothes up to a recycle shop 45 minutes away, I had to ride through a thunderstorm - and then go back to school to get more boxes, that I took home in garbage bags! I was just plain out of time. We had booked tickets to a Hanshin Tigers vs Tokyo Giants game for Tuesday, but it got rained out and cancelled...and then UNcancelled, but we didn't realize, so we forfeited the ticket cost. We did go out to a fancy sushi place instead, in the deep underground (well, B2) of Higashi-Umeda, and ate ootoro (giant tuna), something I meant to do the whole time I was in Japan. A few days later a JET from Daito-shi came by the next day and took the microwave, futons, shelves and washing machine so I didn't have to throw them out. Then, dismayed that I hadn't tied up some of the emotional loose ends, I booked an overnight bus to Tokyo and spent two days there, thinking. I sat on the beach in Odaiba and wrote my goodbye speech for school assembly, and I did not tell any of my Tokyo friends that I was there. I just wanted quiet. While in Tokyo, Em and I decided over the phone (on the train! what a bad tourist I'd become!) that since I was handing over the keys Tuesday, it was safe to book another set of baseball tickets for Wednesday, and we got seats for the Tigers/Carp game. Unfortunately for everyone, I misremembered the day I was handing off the keys as Tuesday, when it was actually Wednesday.
When I got back, I threw my efforts into packing. On Monday and Tuesday, Mitsu came over and hauled away my couch, bathroom items, and a bunch of miscellaneous things. Then we discovered I wasn't turning in the keys on Tuesday, so we slacked a bit. It was all packing, until Mitsu insisted that he wanted to spend SOME time with me before he left. We went to Jolly Pasta and had rice croquettes and talked, then picked Emily up and sped out to Umeda on the Hankyu line to go to the all-you-can-eat cake buffet Sweets Paradise (another thing on the list). I slept in Emily's apartment that night while Mitsu "slept" in mine. (I came upstairs to discover that EVERYTHING had been removed from the outside cabinet, the bathroom, the toilet room, the genkan closet and the cupboard under the kitchen sink, and heaped in small sorted piles around the living room.(!)) We sent Mitsu off back to Kanagawa then, saying that Em and I could handle the rest. Thus, on Wednesday Emily and I went to the tax office, I returned DVDs to Tsutaya, brought more boxes home from school and ran other errands, then the two of us hurriedly stuffed things into boxes until the gas and electricity guys appeared to cut things off. One of my co-teachers showed up at dinnertime, horrified that we weren't ready to hand the keys over. Admittedly, the place was a -wreck-. Nobody would ever believe I was supposed to be on a plane at 1:30 the next day. Landlord showed up and immediately determined that I should hand over the keys tomorrow. Emily graciously offered to do this for me, since I'd be long gone. After everyone left, the post guy and three cohorts (I guess when they saw it was me AGAIN, and I'd mailed 6 30 kg boxes the day prior, they sent additional staff) showed up and hauled away the remaining few boxes I had set to go. We filled more garbage bags, then decided it was a mortal sin to waste those tickets, and 2 hours' break wouldn't kill us. We hopped the train to Hanshin Stadium and arrived during the 5th inning. The Tigers lost, but the game was a lot of fun. :)
After, it turned out I still had electricity in my apartment (sweet!) so we ran an extension cord over the balcony down to Em's just in case the lights went out in the middle of the night and continued to pack. I'd forgotten to sort my papers, which would have been expensive to send and were mostly garbage, so we sorted ALL of these items, got them packed, threw out things, cleaned things, organized, etc...there was so much stuff! Around 2 AM I sent Em downstairs and continued on my own, talking on the phone with Eric. Somewhere around 5 or 6 am I lay down right on the hardhood floor and napped for an hour or so, then woke back up and continued...went over to the post office and to school to print my boarding pass and drop off my bike, then came back on the train to find that Em had just about everything else done. Bless her. She was going to take me to Moriguchi, but I ended up missing the train that would get me to the right bus, so she got instructions for the Haruka while I changed (I'd been wearing those clothes for what felt like forever, everything that I wasn't intending to wear on the plane was vacuum-bagged, yuck) and emptied my purse into a tote bag so I wouldn't have 4 carry-ons. After getting the train schedules Em decided to go with me to the airport, despite the high cost of the Haruka train. I was really grateful, though. We paused briefly at Tennoji to grab omurice rice balls and some somen and YET ANOTHER charger for my cell phone (I tell you, it's ridiculous how many of those things I threw out, and the ones I did keep, I packed right when I needed them) before heading on to Kansai Airport. My checked luggage that I'd sent along on Monday had already arrived, so we weighed it there at the airport, put another 2 kilos in, then checked it. Em and I then lingered in Departures awhile and browsed the shops. Got some of those lovely powder sheets to help with the travel, and changed some of my yen into USD, CAD and Chinese Yuan.
At immigration, I had to hand over my gaijin card. This broke my heart as I'd become attached to it somehow. (Perhaps in a Stockholm Syndrome sort of way.) There was a huge line for immigration, too, but luckily boarding had been quite delayed. Eric called to check on me once I was inside security. Soon we boarded, and I hauled my massive bags to the VERY BACK SEAT on this plane that was seating at least 8 across, maybe more. I dozed off a bit, but we were in Taiwan less than three hours later. :<
In the airport, I had 8 hours' layover. No way was I staying around the lobby on NO sleep, so I got a temporary visa (nerve-wracking), went through Taiwanese customs (worse) and tried to bond my baggage (awful). Well, I'd only taken 1,500 yen (about $17) to be changed and they wanted "400" (about $60!) to hold my bags; I said that was expensive, so they said to try the cheaper place outside of security, it was cheaper.
Over there, the guy quoted me 100, it was still pricey ($15) but I'd gotten a visa and come this far so I said sure, I'd check the rolling luggage at least. When I handed him a 100 bill though he said it was the wrong currency. I thought I told the lady at the kiosk in Osaka that I wanted Taiwanese currency, but she gave me Chinese yuan, so I wound up exchanging that and came up with nearly 570 Taiwan New Dollars. Suddenly the luggage check was much cheaper. XD I checked both bags and arranged to have them brought to the Departures floor later that evening (thank goodness for English-speaking airport staff, though the bonded baggage staff girls just giggled nervously and got someone else!), went to the Tourist Info Centre to find something to do, bought a bus ticket, and boarded a bus to the Taimall. The trip to Taipei was more than an hour, and I didn't want to risk missing my boarding time if I ran into trouble, so instead I opted for the mall, just 15 minutes away. From the mall, at least, if I missed the bus I could always flag a cab and point at the word "airport" in kanji on my schedule. (Yeah, guess how much Mandarin Chinese I speak? PRETTY MUCH NONE. I can read a fair bit, though, because the Japanese kanji system was adapted from China's.)
I went to a 7-11 and marvelled at how many of the products were the same or similar to in Japan...and then suddenly, American food too. It was pretty funny. The milk tea tasted just the same as in Osaka, even the same brand names. :D I had a box of chocolate-covered jellies to get a little sugar boost, then went to the Taimall.
Here, I had only the barest concept of how much anything was worth. A bottle of milk tea (about 150 yen in Japan, in the $1.70 range) was something like 70 New Taiwan Dollars. I had less than $20 worth of TWD, plus my credit card in case of emergency. Somehow I made it last enough to get tea (thrice), candy, arcade tokens, bus tickets to and from the airport to Taimall, luggage checking service for 2 bags, a bottle of antiperspirant, a toy to bring back for Nikolas and dinner. I am pretty sure I stretched that $20 pretty far, probably to the tune of 4,000 yen. Taiwan was cheap. :D It was funny that things like tea could be so costly in comparison to an entire dinner. I had bibimbap, because I figured I shouldn't allow myself to eat Japanese food (just left there) nor American (about to go there), and the Chinese didn't appeal much so I opted for Korean. It was VERY hot - I think Japanese-Korean food must tone down the spices a bit. It was delicious, though. I had a minor mishap locating the bus stop, but managed to ask someone in passable enough pilot speak and found my way there pretty quick.
I'd gotten back far too early, so there was more layover in the airport, but I had my laptop with me and got my cellphone charged as well before I managed to get on the flight to Vancouver.
This leg of the trip was Long. Also, exhausting, yet I couldn't sleep well. I did try to sleep, though, as it was 12 hours long. Air China didn't feed us as well as Air Canada would have and my seatmates were pretty grumpy...the seats were also built for smaller people. When I finally got to Vancouver, early the next evening (or the same evening, depending on your point of view) I had no concept of time anymore. Kelley, Lionel and Nikolas picked me up at the airport and took me back to their place for dinner. A very tasty roast. :D We chatted a bit, then they set me up on the pullout couch in the living room.
Next morning, Kel made crepes, which were delicious. Nikolas seemed to really take to me, hehe. What a cutie he was! We played awhile, I repacked my luggage, and we went off to Granville Island. We browsed the boutiques and watched a British street busker perform. He was quite funny, I thought, but not so kid appropriate, hehe. After that we went to the beach and relaxed, snacked, played in the ocean with clothes on, etc. Then I had to get going again, so I changed clothes and they dropped me at the airport. This was my first contact with Canadian convenience stores so I was excited to be able to buy snacks. Also, hungry. It was all high-priced though so I ended up just buying raisin clusters and chocolate milk. Which were delicious.
Vancouver to Winnipeg was just a short hop - three hours. The timezone change from Pacific to Central was more severe, and I arrived late at night, 11 PM. After sleeping on the plane for most of the trip, I awoke with the sniffles, and immediately panicked. What if I'd picked up something ridiculous in my travels!? Bird flu? Worse?! What kind of odd infectious diseases did they have in Taiwan!? I was sure I was bringing the plague home, and refused to hug anyone at the airport. (Until someone insisted.) Well, luckily for me it cleared by the next morning, so I think I was just shivering from the cold temperature in the plane's cabin. We stayed at Paul's house (same Paul as last time I was in Winnipeg :)) overnight and then rolled off on our majestic summer road trip!
...which, you know, lost lustre after about 8 hours. ;D
With Paul and Rodd switching off driving duty, Randy, Rhonda and I were crammed in the back. They're both tall and long-legged, while I'm just easily squat. Randy's got back problems, Ron had never been in a car THAT long before, and I was jet lagged and squished. It was a pretty bad scene, at points, but for the most part we were all right. Stopped at IHOP and Target to stock up our stomachs once we hit North Dakota, then pretty much rolled all the way to Tennessee nonstop. We tried to stretch every 2 hours or so, switch drivers and etc, and at one point simply pulled over at a rest stop to let Paul sleep comfortably, since he'd been driving SO long. The only time we were actually lost was in Gatlinburg itself, ironically enough. Final time for the trip was 31 hours, I think.
Gatlinburg was hugely tacky and touristy. On the main road through Pigeon Forge, we marvelled at the awful, incredible things we passed, such as a giant museum shaped like the Titanic...with an iceberg and a fountain sticking out of the back. Gatlinburg itself was only marginally better with all the shops selling candy, t-shirts and weapons, essentially. Oh, America. We weren't there so much for the tourist traps though. We drove up to an enormous rental house in the Hidden Hills and Eric met in the driveway.
For the next week, there was a whole lot of geeking out. 50 video game nerds in one huge cabin, essentially. The place had a pool and two hot tubs (one broken). It had a basketball net that we were able to use exactly once before there were too many cars in the driveway to play. We had Rock Band set up on the giant basement TV, other systems in the living room, and since there had been extra money after the house rental went through, there was dinner provided free and cooked by volunteers. Luke, Eric and I made banana pancakes for a bunch of people one morning. I roomed with Eric, Edo and Ben in one of the big upstairs rooms. Unfortunately, our bathroom door's lock was broken, we didn't have wireless and it was super dim, but the king-sized bed was pretty awesome and it was nice and quiet up there. The rest of the Winnipeggers were in the basement in a 4-bunk room dubbed "Canada" (because it was occupied entirely by Canadians, most of whom arrived in our car) right outside the Rock Band concerts and the hot tub where the bros caroused until the wee hours of the morning. XD; I was so grateful that Eric arriving so early had scored us a room far away from the noise.
Over the course of the week, though, I got hit hard by jet lag (you'd think I would have learned my lesson about rolling off a plane and immediately into a car/up a mountain) and spent a loooot of time sleeping it off. What I did was mostly sleep, eat and talk to people. I spent a lot of time talking to Edo, and also to Randy. I watched video games be played. I read comics and swam in the pool. I ended up in the pool in my best clothes. (Long story.) I ate omelets and rode a trolley and bought an $8 cell phone. I took part in laundry room sitcom drama and watched over an intoxicated roommate. I played basketball and had Blue Drank and rode a ski lift over the Smoky Mountains. I tuned into a live basketball sim, joined a singalong, drank sweet tea, filmed my friends making fools of themselves, had my photo taken at an old-time studio. The heat didn't bother me much - it was rather like Osaka. I stayed close to the house for the first few days, just going out to the grocery store and to lunch once, then went to a Japanese restaurant with a group of people, and had all-you-can-eat American-style sushi and watched a very not -Japanese guy cook/perform on a hibachi grill. On the last full day I went downtown on the trolley with Eric, and we shopped, went to the photo studio, ate an awesome Italian lunch, rode the lifts, had fudge and Icees, and just generally dorked out. I had a lovely time and that day out probably saved my week.
On the last day, after clearing the house we all went out to a pancake place for breakfast. Those poor people, having to seat and serve all 50 of us. :P Divvying up into 4 or 5 tables though, we were all right. I had a most delicious omelet. After that it was time for goodbyes, so we said them in the pancake house parking lot before going our separate ways. The Canada convoy hit some terrible traffic and rain, though, on our way out. :( We ended up in Pigeon Forge at an As Seen on TV store, then at a K-Mart (I think) to stock up and traffic had cleared by then, so off we went. After a Wal-Mart run further up in Tennessee, I fell asleep and woke again in the parking lot of a Steak 'N Shake. My God, I love Steak 'N Shake. Had delicous baked chili and cheese over spaghetti noodles. Yummmmmmm. I want a Steakburger next time. We continued on, and I think I slept a bit more, as it was soon dark and we were in Indiana, having sandwiches, then in Illinois, freshening up in a rest stop bathroom while Paul slept. Then we were in Wisconsin, pacing in the rest stop while Paul slept again, then Paul and I sat up front while the three others were passed out in the back. Watched some Digimon on the LCD. Eventually, in Minnesota we sought out a Taco Bell (closed), and then another (open) to have breakfast(!). In North Dakota we went to the mall, and eventually Duty Free. Border crossing was pretty quick and fine, but it seemed like a long drive through southern MB once we'd crossed! We were amused to be seeing Manitoba license plates again. :) Back in Winnipeg after watching a CN train slowly roll through a residential neighbourhood, we had dinner at a Chinese restaurant together with Rodd's wife, and stayed the night with Paul again, since many of my things from Japan needed to be repacked.
Next morning, Randy, Rhonda and I headed back to their place three hours away. I would be there for the next 8 days, most of which was spent just relaxing. Games, Skype, cooking, exploring, the apartment pool, visiting their parents, talking, dinners out and shopping (just Ron and me, hehe). I went to work with them one night during the overnight shift, but being tired for 8 hours wasn't great, so I only made it once. Things were a little odd at times (the last time I'd seen Randy in person, we were still sort-of dating) but for the most part we had fun and talked quite a lot. The visit flew by and soon we were back in Winnipeg spending a final evening with the others. Rodd took us to the gym where he practices martial arts and, after his sparring match, gave us a demo lesson. I had invited Chad along since I wasn't able to get to The Pas during my visit, but I couldn't get ahold of him unfortunately. Instead, we got a workout, and then watched Randy and Rodd beat each other up. It was pretty great. After that, we went back to Rodd's house for showers and a dinner of soft tacos, then we were going to catch a movie, but ran completely out of time. We ended up returning to Paul's and I fell asleep almost straightaway. Woke back up and talked to Randy a bit, tuned into the final H.E.A.T. brackets, then we made a 7-11 run before heading to bed.
The next morning, after loading up the car and refuelling on Taco Bell, we proceeded to the airport. :'( The Domestic Departures area was far more interesting than International was, but I didn't have time to enjoy it...as soon as we'd parked, unloaded, checked me in, weighed my bags and took out half the books (making room for Mountain Dew Throwback), my flight was boarding and I hadn't yet said goodbye. Ron hugged me, then she immediately left so she wouldn't cry in front of us. ^^; I talked to the others a moment, said my farewells, hugs all around...then entered security. As the guy searched my bag (set off by my TV tuner) I got paged for final boarding. Oops. I sat down with a heavy heart and tuned into some Weakerthans. Luckily, being the last to check in, I had the row to myself and by the time I reached Toronto I was composed. Had to walk across the terminal in my 1-hour of layover. Suddenly starving, I ended up getting a bottle of iced tea and a bag of Aero Bubbles for a shocking $11. Seriously!? Oh, airport prices. >_> Broke out the laptop to waste a little time, but it turned out I had very little. We were boarding, and I was culture-shocking, before I knew it as little kids ran, hyper, around the gate area. It was the first time yet that I wished I was back in Osaka. The ensuing flight seemed incredibly long, though I had a pleasant conversation about Japan with my elderly (and chic) seatmate. Then I dove into The Age of Persuasion for a couple hours, but I was really sick of being in cramped plane/car/train seats for huge stretches, and I finally was at my limit. So I was incredibly glad when we landed at last, and I got a big welcome-back from so many of my friends. :) At least a dozen people turned out at the airport and embarrassed me mercilessly, but it was amazing. <3 you guys!
...and that brings a close to the 3-year Japanese chapter of my life. Will I be going back? Definitely, at the first opportunity, whether it's to visit or to research. In my wildest dreams, I might have to go over there awhile to promote a book or supervise a translation of one. Either way, Osaka will always be my second home.
On one hand, I'm happy to see my family and friends again. It's so nice being able to have the foods I missed and see familiar places.
On the other hand, I'm badly missing my apartment and Emily in particular, as well as the food, the weather, my town, my bicycle, my students, my co-workers. My independance. Here, I can't just pick up and go wherever I like; it's cold to the point where I need a jacket to go outside. My friends are great, but I'm a little overwhelmed.
It's nice to be here...though I can't help but feel that it's only a matter of time before I go back to Japan for a visit. I'm already planning it. GCCX game centers, a visit to Meoto-Iwa, perhaps Wakayama in early summer...and I want to get a Japan Rail Pass and really see the parts of the country that were too far away to visit before. I want to see Okinawa and Hokkaido, visit the Hidden Springs in Kyushu again and eat dango-jiru, walk through the lights of Shibuya late at night. I give it three years, tops.
Since my last entry, I've literally had no time for anything. Marisa showed up just days after Gen-chan left, and while she was here, Mana came down from Gunma for a weekend. I had a ton of fun with them both. Just after Marisa went back to the States, Mel crashed at my place for two weeks while she arranged things for her own stay in Japan. In the meantime, Mana came again, as did Mitsu for much of the last week I was there. Mitsu and Emily were absolutely instrumental in getting me out of the country on time.
I felt vaguely uncomfortable trying to pack the apartment with Mel there so I put it off until she left...6 days before I was to hand over my keys. I was in a panic from there. Twice I hauled home boxes over my back as a biked home, using jumper cables. Once, as I dragged 6 kilograms of clothes up to a recycle shop 45 minutes away, I had to ride through a thunderstorm - and then go back to school to get more boxes, that I took home in garbage bags! I was just plain out of time. We had booked tickets to a Hanshin Tigers vs Tokyo Giants game for Tuesday, but it got rained out and cancelled...and then UNcancelled, but we didn't realize, so we forfeited the ticket cost. We did go out to a fancy sushi place instead, in the deep underground (well, B2) of Higashi-Umeda, and ate ootoro (giant tuna), something I meant to do the whole time I was in Japan. A few days later a JET from Daito-shi came by the next day and took the microwave, futons, shelves and washing machine so I didn't have to throw them out. Then, dismayed that I hadn't tied up some of the emotional loose ends, I booked an overnight bus to Tokyo and spent two days there, thinking. I sat on the beach in Odaiba and wrote my goodbye speech for school assembly, and I did not tell any of my Tokyo friends that I was there. I just wanted quiet. While in Tokyo, Em and I decided over the phone (on the train! what a bad tourist I'd become!) that since I was handing over the keys Tuesday, it was safe to book another set of baseball tickets for Wednesday, and we got seats for the Tigers/Carp game. Unfortunately for everyone, I misremembered the day I was handing off the keys as Tuesday, when it was actually Wednesday.
When I got back, I threw my efforts into packing. On Monday and Tuesday, Mitsu came over and hauled away my couch, bathroom items, and a bunch of miscellaneous things. Then we discovered I wasn't turning in the keys on Tuesday, so we slacked a bit. It was all packing, until Mitsu insisted that he wanted to spend SOME time with me before he left. We went to Jolly Pasta and had rice croquettes and talked, then picked Emily up and sped out to Umeda on the Hankyu line to go to the all-you-can-eat cake buffet Sweets Paradise (another thing on the list). I slept in Emily's apartment that night while Mitsu "slept" in mine. (I came upstairs to discover that EVERYTHING had been removed from the outside cabinet, the bathroom, the toilet room, the genkan closet and the cupboard under the kitchen sink, and heaped in small sorted piles around the living room.(!)) We sent Mitsu off back to Kanagawa then, saying that Em and I could handle the rest. Thus, on Wednesday Emily and I went to the tax office, I returned DVDs to Tsutaya, brought more boxes home from school and ran other errands, then the two of us hurriedly stuffed things into boxes until the gas and electricity guys appeared to cut things off. One of my co-teachers showed up at dinnertime, horrified that we weren't ready to hand the keys over. Admittedly, the place was a -wreck-. Nobody would ever believe I was supposed to be on a plane at 1:30 the next day. Landlord showed up and immediately determined that I should hand over the keys tomorrow. Emily graciously offered to do this for me, since I'd be long gone. After everyone left, the post guy and three cohorts (I guess when they saw it was me AGAIN, and I'd mailed 6 30 kg boxes the day prior, they sent additional staff) showed up and hauled away the remaining few boxes I had set to go. We filled more garbage bags, then decided it was a mortal sin to waste those tickets, and 2 hours' break wouldn't kill us. We hopped the train to Hanshin Stadium and arrived during the 5th inning. The Tigers lost, but the game was a lot of fun. :)
After, it turned out I still had electricity in my apartment (sweet!) so we ran an extension cord over the balcony down to Em's just in case the lights went out in the middle of the night and continued to pack. I'd forgotten to sort my papers, which would have been expensive to send and were mostly garbage, so we sorted ALL of these items, got them packed, threw out things, cleaned things, organized, etc...there was so much stuff! Around 2 AM I sent Em downstairs and continued on my own, talking on the phone with Eric. Somewhere around 5 or 6 am I lay down right on the hardhood floor and napped for an hour or so, then woke back up and continued...went over to the post office and to school to print my boarding pass and drop off my bike, then came back on the train to find that Em had just about everything else done. Bless her. She was going to take me to Moriguchi, but I ended up missing the train that would get me to the right bus, so she got instructions for the Haruka while I changed (I'd been wearing those clothes for what felt like forever, everything that I wasn't intending to wear on the plane was vacuum-bagged, yuck) and emptied my purse into a tote bag so I wouldn't have 4 carry-ons. After getting the train schedules Em decided to go with me to the airport, despite the high cost of the Haruka train. I was really grateful, though. We paused briefly at Tennoji to grab omurice rice balls and some somen and YET ANOTHER charger for my cell phone (I tell you, it's ridiculous how many of those things I threw out, and the ones I did keep, I packed right when I needed them) before heading on to Kansai Airport. My checked luggage that I'd sent along on Monday had already arrived, so we weighed it there at the airport, put another 2 kilos in, then checked it. Em and I then lingered in Departures awhile and browsed the shops. Got some of those lovely powder sheets to help with the travel, and changed some of my yen into USD, CAD and Chinese Yuan.
At immigration, I had to hand over my gaijin card. This broke my heart as I'd become attached to it somehow. (Perhaps in a Stockholm Syndrome sort of way.) There was a huge line for immigration, too, but luckily boarding had been quite delayed. Eric called to check on me once I was inside security. Soon we boarded, and I hauled my massive bags to the VERY BACK SEAT on this plane that was seating at least 8 across, maybe more. I dozed off a bit, but we were in Taiwan less than three hours later. :<
In the airport, I had 8 hours' layover. No way was I staying around the lobby on NO sleep, so I got a temporary visa (nerve-wracking), went through Taiwanese customs (worse) and tried to bond my baggage (awful). Well, I'd only taken 1,500 yen (about $17) to be changed and they wanted "400" (about $60!) to hold my bags; I said that was expensive, so they said to try the cheaper place outside of security, it was cheaper.
Over there, the guy quoted me 100, it was still pricey ($15) but I'd gotten a visa and come this far so I said sure, I'd check the rolling luggage at least. When I handed him a 100 bill though he said it was the wrong currency. I thought I told the lady at the kiosk in Osaka that I wanted Taiwanese currency, but she gave me Chinese yuan, so I wound up exchanging that and came up with nearly 570 Taiwan New Dollars. Suddenly the luggage check was much cheaper. XD I checked both bags and arranged to have them brought to the Departures floor later that evening (thank goodness for English-speaking airport staff, though the bonded baggage staff girls just giggled nervously and got someone else!), went to the Tourist Info Centre to find something to do, bought a bus ticket, and boarded a bus to the Taimall. The trip to Taipei was more than an hour, and I didn't want to risk missing my boarding time if I ran into trouble, so instead I opted for the mall, just 15 minutes away. From the mall, at least, if I missed the bus I could always flag a cab and point at the word "airport" in kanji on my schedule. (Yeah, guess how much Mandarin Chinese I speak? PRETTY MUCH NONE. I can read a fair bit, though, because the Japanese kanji system was adapted from China's.)
I went to a 7-11 and marvelled at how many of the products were the same or similar to in Japan...and then suddenly, American food too. It was pretty funny. The milk tea tasted just the same as in Osaka, even the same brand names. :D I had a box of chocolate-covered jellies to get a little sugar boost, then went to the Taimall.
Here, I had only the barest concept of how much anything was worth. A bottle of milk tea (about 150 yen in Japan, in the $1.70 range) was something like 70 New Taiwan Dollars. I had less than $20 worth of TWD, plus my credit card in case of emergency. Somehow I made it last enough to get tea (thrice), candy, arcade tokens, bus tickets to and from the airport to Taimall, luggage checking service for 2 bags, a bottle of antiperspirant, a toy to bring back for Nikolas and dinner. I am pretty sure I stretched that $20 pretty far, probably to the tune of 4,000 yen. Taiwan was cheap. :D It was funny that things like tea could be so costly in comparison to an entire dinner. I had bibimbap, because I figured I shouldn't allow myself to eat Japanese food (just left there) nor American (about to go there), and the Chinese didn't appeal much so I opted for Korean. It was VERY hot - I think Japanese-Korean food must tone down the spices a bit. It was delicious, though. I had a minor mishap locating the bus stop, but managed to ask someone in passable enough pilot speak and found my way there pretty quick.
I'd gotten back far too early, so there was more layover in the airport, but I had my laptop with me and got my cellphone charged as well before I managed to get on the flight to Vancouver.
This leg of the trip was Long. Also, exhausting, yet I couldn't sleep well. I did try to sleep, though, as it was 12 hours long. Air China didn't feed us as well as Air Canada would have and my seatmates were pretty grumpy...the seats were also built for smaller people. When I finally got to Vancouver, early the next evening (or the same evening, depending on your point of view) I had no concept of time anymore. Kelley, Lionel and Nikolas picked me up at the airport and took me back to their place for dinner. A very tasty roast. :D We chatted a bit, then they set me up on the pullout couch in the living room.
Next morning, Kel made crepes, which were delicious. Nikolas seemed to really take to me, hehe. What a cutie he was! We played awhile, I repacked my luggage, and we went off to Granville Island. We browsed the boutiques and watched a British street busker perform. He was quite funny, I thought, but not so kid appropriate, hehe. After that we went to the beach and relaxed, snacked, played in the ocean with clothes on, etc. Then I had to get going again, so I changed clothes and they dropped me at the airport. This was my first contact with Canadian convenience stores so I was excited to be able to buy snacks. Also, hungry. It was all high-priced though so I ended up just buying raisin clusters and chocolate milk. Which were delicious.
Vancouver to Winnipeg was just a short hop - three hours. The timezone change from Pacific to Central was more severe, and I arrived late at night, 11 PM. After sleeping on the plane for most of the trip, I awoke with the sniffles, and immediately panicked. What if I'd picked up something ridiculous in my travels!? Bird flu? Worse?! What kind of odd infectious diseases did they have in Taiwan!? I was sure I was bringing the plague home, and refused to hug anyone at the airport. (Until someone insisted.) Well, luckily for me it cleared by the next morning, so I think I was just shivering from the cold temperature in the plane's cabin. We stayed at Paul's house (same Paul as last time I was in Winnipeg :)) overnight and then rolled off on our majestic summer road trip!
...which, you know, lost lustre after about 8 hours. ;D
With Paul and Rodd switching off driving duty, Randy, Rhonda and I were crammed in the back. They're both tall and long-legged, while I'm just easily squat. Randy's got back problems, Ron had never been in a car THAT long before, and I was jet lagged and squished. It was a pretty bad scene, at points, but for the most part we were all right. Stopped at IHOP and Target to stock up our stomachs once we hit North Dakota, then pretty much rolled all the way to Tennessee nonstop. We tried to stretch every 2 hours or so, switch drivers and etc, and at one point simply pulled over at a rest stop to let Paul sleep comfortably, since he'd been driving SO long. The only time we were actually lost was in Gatlinburg itself, ironically enough. Final time for the trip was 31 hours, I think.
Gatlinburg was hugely tacky and touristy. On the main road through Pigeon Forge, we marvelled at the awful, incredible things we passed, such as a giant museum shaped like the Titanic...with an iceberg and a fountain sticking out of the back. Gatlinburg itself was only marginally better with all the shops selling candy, t-shirts and weapons, essentially. Oh, America. We weren't there so much for the tourist traps though. We drove up to an enormous rental house in the Hidden Hills and Eric met in the driveway.
For the next week, there was a whole lot of geeking out. 50 video game nerds in one huge cabin, essentially. The place had a pool and two hot tubs (one broken). It had a basketball net that we were able to use exactly once before there were too many cars in the driveway to play. We had Rock Band set up on the giant basement TV, other systems in the living room, and since there had been extra money after the house rental went through, there was dinner provided free and cooked by volunteers. Luke, Eric and I made banana pancakes for a bunch of people one morning. I roomed with Eric, Edo and Ben in one of the big upstairs rooms. Unfortunately, our bathroom door's lock was broken, we didn't have wireless and it was super dim, but the king-sized bed was pretty awesome and it was nice and quiet up there. The rest of the Winnipeggers were in the basement in a 4-bunk room dubbed "Canada" (because it was occupied entirely by Canadians, most of whom arrived in our car) right outside the Rock Band concerts and the hot tub where the bros caroused until the wee hours of the morning. XD; I was so grateful that Eric arriving so early had scored us a room far away from the noise.
Over the course of the week, though, I got hit hard by jet lag (you'd think I would have learned my lesson about rolling off a plane and immediately into a car/up a mountain) and spent a loooot of time sleeping it off. What I did was mostly sleep, eat and talk to people. I spent a lot of time talking to Edo, and also to Randy. I watched video games be played. I read comics and swam in the pool. I ended up in the pool in my best clothes. (Long story.) I ate omelets and rode a trolley and bought an $8 cell phone. I took part in laundry room sitcom drama and watched over an intoxicated roommate. I played basketball and had Blue Drank and rode a ski lift over the Smoky Mountains. I tuned into a live basketball sim, joined a singalong, drank sweet tea, filmed my friends making fools of themselves, had my photo taken at an old-time studio. The heat didn't bother me much - it was rather like Osaka. I stayed close to the house for the first few days, just going out to the grocery store and to lunch once, then went to a Japanese restaurant with a group of people, and had all-you-can-eat American-style sushi and watched a very not -Japanese guy cook/perform on a hibachi grill. On the last full day I went downtown on the trolley with Eric, and we shopped, went to the photo studio, ate an awesome Italian lunch, rode the lifts, had fudge and Icees, and just generally dorked out. I had a lovely time and that day out probably saved my week.
On the last day, after clearing the house we all went out to a pancake place for breakfast. Those poor people, having to seat and serve all 50 of us. :P Divvying up into 4 or 5 tables though, we were all right. I had a most delicious omelet. After that it was time for goodbyes, so we said them in the pancake house parking lot before going our separate ways. The Canada convoy hit some terrible traffic and rain, though, on our way out. :( We ended up in Pigeon Forge at an As Seen on TV store, then at a K-Mart (I think) to stock up and traffic had cleared by then, so off we went. After a Wal-Mart run further up in Tennessee, I fell asleep and woke again in the parking lot of a Steak 'N Shake. My God, I love Steak 'N Shake. Had delicous baked chili and cheese over spaghetti noodles. Yummmmmmm. I want a Steakburger next time. We continued on, and I think I slept a bit more, as it was soon dark and we were in Indiana, having sandwiches, then in Illinois, freshening up in a rest stop bathroom while Paul slept. Then we were in Wisconsin, pacing in the rest stop while Paul slept again, then Paul and I sat up front while the three others were passed out in the back. Watched some Digimon on the LCD. Eventually, in Minnesota we sought out a Taco Bell (closed), and then another (open) to have breakfast(!). In North Dakota we went to the mall, and eventually Duty Free. Border crossing was pretty quick and fine, but it seemed like a long drive through southern MB once we'd crossed! We were amused to be seeing Manitoba license plates again. :) Back in Winnipeg after watching a CN train slowly roll through a residential neighbourhood, we had dinner at a Chinese restaurant together with Rodd's wife, and stayed the night with Paul again, since many of my things from Japan needed to be repacked.
Next morning, Randy, Rhonda and I headed back to their place three hours away. I would be there for the next 8 days, most of which was spent just relaxing. Games, Skype, cooking, exploring, the apartment pool, visiting their parents, talking, dinners out and shopping (just Ron and me, hehe). I went to work with them one night during the overnight shift, but being tired for 8 hours wasn't great, so I only made it once. Things were a little odd at times (the last time I'd seen Randy in person, we were still sort-of dating) but for the most part we had fun and talked quite a lot. The visit flew by and soon we were back in Winnipeg spending a final evening with the others. Rodd took us to the gym where he practices martial arts and, after his sparring match, gave us a demo lesson. I had invited Chad along since I wasn't able to get to The Pas during my visit, but I couldn't get ahold of him unfortunately. Instead, we got a workout, and then watched Randy and Rodd beat each other up. It was pretty great. After that, we went back to Rodd's house for showers and a dinner of soft tacos, then we were going to catch a movie, but ran completely out of time. We ended up returning to Paul's and I fell asleep almost straightaway. Woke back up and talked to Randy a bit, tuned into the final H.E.A.T. brackets, then we made a 7-11 run before heading to bed.
The next morning, after loading up the car and refuelling on Taco Bell, we proceeded to the airport. :'( The Domestic Departures area was far more interesting than International was, but I didn't have time to enjoy it...as soon as we'd parked, unloaded, checked me in, weighed my bags and took out half the books (making room for Mountain Dew Throwback), my flight was boarding and I hadn't yet said goodbye. Ron hugged me, then she immediately left so she wouldn't cry in front of us. ^^; I talked to the others a moment, said my farewells, hugs all around...then entered security. As the guy searched my bag (set off by my TV tuner) I got paged for final boarding. Oops. I sat down with a heavy heart and tuned into some Weakerthans. Luckily, being the last to check in, I had the row to myself and by the time I reached Toronto I was composed. Had to walk across the terminal in my 1-hour of layover. Suddenly starving, I ended up getting a bottle of iced tea and a bag of Aero Bubbles for a shocking $11. Seriously!? Oh, airport prices. >_> Broke out the laptop to waste a little time, but it turned out I had very little. We were boarding, and I was culture-shocking, before I knew it as little kids ran, hyper, around the gate area. It was the first time yet that I wished I was back in Osaka. The ensuing flight seemed incredibly long, though I had a pleasant conversation about Japan with my elderly (and chic) seatmate. Then I dove into The Age of Persuasion for a couple hours, but I was really sick of being in cramped plane/car/train seats for huge stretches, and I finally was at my limit. So I was incredibly glad when we landed at last, and I got a big welcome-back from so many of my friends. :) At least a dozen people turned out at the airport and embarrassed me mercilessly, but it was amazing. <3 you guys!
...and that brings a close to the 3-year Japanese chapter of my life. Will I be going back? Definitely, at the first opportunity, whether it's to visit or to research. In my wildest dreams, I might have to go over there awhile to promote a book or supervise a translation of one. Either way, Osaka will always be my second home.